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Announcement: Short-content feeds

Phillip Winn — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding.

English Premiership Football Roundup Week 16

Christopher Rose — Sat, 17 Dec 2005 10:09:00 EST

As predicted, Liverpool got this week's fixtures started with a routine 2-0 victory over Middlesborough through two goals from Fernando Morientes and yet another clean sheet; Liverpool are starting to look impressively strong on all fronts.The afternoon games produced two major surprises as West Brom showed signs of adapting to the Premiership as they overturned the form guide and my prediction to beat an offcolour Manchester City 2-0. Meanwhile, I got it right with Newcastle, who edged visitors Arsenal 1-0 to stem the Gunners' recovery.The other matches pretty much ran to form as Birmingham edged towards safety with a narrow 1-0 win over Fulham; Blackburn versus West Ham produced all the thrills I expected but Blackburn confounded my call, just winning 3-2; Aston Villa also fooled me, forcing a 1-1 draw at Bolton, with both goals coming in the last ten minutes; Charlton took my advice and stopped their losing streak with a unexciting 2-0 win; and Chelsea produced another steady if a little dull performance to beat Wigan 1-0 through another goal from captain John Terry.Sunday's game was a personal vindication for Everton's ex Red, Phil Neville, who ran the game for the Blues and fully deserved his Man-of-the-Match award in the Theatre of Dreams as Manchester United were almost overwhelmed but held on for a frustrating 1-1 draw, despite my predictable victory prediction.I did much better with the Monday night game, correctly calling a confident Tottenham victory, as the Spurs marred the return of Harry Redknapp as Portsmouth manager, brushing them aside 3 - 1. My score for the weekend a respectable if unexciting 6 out of 10. The current full Premiership League Table is on the Premier League website.This roundup and more on Manchester United and football in general can be found on my About Manchester United blog.

A lifelong fan of Manchester United and a passionate lover of music and science fiction, I live in Antequera in the heart of Southern Spain. In addition to serving here as Comments Editor and Blogcritics Forum Admin/Moderator, I also publish a variety of independent online sites. These currently include a bunch of intermittent blogs covering everything from dieting to robots and, most recently, Eurocritics Magazine. My wife and I also run an affordable luxury villa rental in Spain if you're thinking of a holiday!

English Premiership Football Roundup Week 15

Christopher Rose — Wed, 7 Dec 2005 20:21:22 EST

Despite the deteriorating English Winter weather there was some fantastic football played in the Premiership this first December weekend.First match of the weekend continued the steady progress of Rafa Benitez' Liverpool, who saw off the sadly fading Wigan 3-0 for an easy victory in which Scouse striker Peter Crouch finally broke his scoring duck and took the West Coast boys surfing up to third place.In the later games, two of the North West's most unpredictable teams swapped roles with Blackburn tamely surrendering home advantage to an unusually sharp Everton 0-2; Lancashire neighbours Bolton Wanderers played to their full potential and sent a subdued Arsenal home on the wrong end of a 2-0 beating; leaders Chelsea maintained their ten point lead at the top with an unconvincing 1-0 home victory against Middlesborough; Newcastle failed to take advantage of the troubled Aston Villa, drawing 1-1; Spurs just shaded a thrilling match with bottom of the table Sunderland, winning 3-2 whilst basement cases West Brom and Fulham tottered to a sterile 0-0 draw.The last game of the day produced the (George) best football, as a newly confident Manchester United, probably due to the fact they've started playing 4-4-2 again, brushed aside managerless Portsmouth 3-0, thanks to goals from Paul Scholes, Wayne Rooney and Ruud van Nistelrooy.Sunday's game produced a feast of goals as Manchester City swamped hosts Charlton Athletic 2-5 with former Red Devil Andy Cole scoring twice for City to consolidate their place in the top half of the table.Monday night in Birmingham, never an enticing prospect, became all the worse for the home team as visitors West Ham proved too strong and determined, running out 1-2 victors.There we have it for Week 15, no change at the top of the table but everything's still all to play for; Chelsea have got to drop some more points soon, right?American sports are so dull, with no relegation to worry about, that the Yanks get as much fun predicting the results as they do from the matches themselves so I thought I just might point out that my predictions for this weekend's results were correct in six out of ten games this weekend!Click there for the latest Premier League Table.This roundup was first published here on About Manchester United.

English Premiership Football Roundup Week 14

Christopher Rose — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 21:56:53 EST

On a weekend in which almost every ground in the country marked the sad passing of football legend George Best on Friday 25th November, some stirringly exciting football served as a fitting marker to his memory.Saturday saw Arsenal, as predicted, prove too strong for Blackburn Rovers and were worth their 3-0 victory. Aston Villa did very well to earn their second consecutive victory and hand visitors Charlton Athletic their second consecutive defeat; Manchester City should have beaten Liverpool but stuttered again and lost 0-1; whilst Sunderland lost the basement battle with Birmingham 0-1 and are starting to look doomed already.The game of the day saw Wigan Athletic fall from second place, just being shaded 1-2 by an invigorated Tottenham Hotspur, whilst runaway leaders Chelsea had an easy evening's work brushing aside managerless Portsmouth 0-2.Sunday offered a veritable marathon of football spanning almost six hours, starting with Everton v Newcastle United, which most years you'd fancy Everton to win and indeed they did, turning round their recent poor run with a 1-0 win over the subdued Geordies. Fulham were impressive against Bolton Wanderers, winning 2-1 thanks to two goals from American striker Brian McBride.Steve McClaren's Middlesbrough were severely tested by Bryan Robson's West Bromwich Albion and were relieved to finish 2-2. Manchester United's moving appearance at West Ham ended happily for the Red Devils, winning 1-2 thanks to goals from Wayne Rooney and John O'Shea after going behind in the first minute.A good weekend for Chelsea, United, Arsenal, Spurs, Liverpool and Everton but bad news for Wigan, Bolton, Man City, West Ham and Charlton, who all tumble down the current Premiership League table.This round-up is cross posted as Premiership Roundup Week 14 on About Manchester United.

English Premiership Football Roundup Week 13

Christopher Rose — Fri, 25 Nov 2005 17:30:44 EST

A third of the way into the season and things are starting to get serious as teams look to grasp the glittering prizes and/or start struggling desperately to avoid the abyss of relegation.First match of the weekend seems form team of the moment Wigan Athletic brought back down to earth 2-3 by a resurgent Arsenal to claim their first away victory of the season and climb to fourth place.Leaders Chelsea, rebuilding Manchester United and schizophrenic Liverpool all scored three goals each to mark routine victories against Newcastle United, Charlton Athletic and Portsmouth respectively with only Charlton's Darren Ambrose scoring for the losers.Elsewhere Manchester City were held 0-0 by visitors Blackburn Rovers and Sunderland's stadium shone no light on their miserable season, going down 1-3 to the not-much-better Aston Villa. In the evening match, the gradually-getting-the-hang-of-it new boys of West Bromwich Albion were far too good for the been-here-so-long-we've-forgotten-what-to-do men of Everton, running out easy 4-0 winners.The Sunday games saw Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United fail to settle which of them is the third best team in London in a 1-1 draw whilst Middlesbrough proved some North Eastern cheer, holding off visitors Fulham 3-2. That turned out to be the last football of the weekend as the Monday night game between Birmingham City and Bolton Wanderers was postponed due to persistent dense fog.Here's the link for the current Premiership League Table.This article is cross-posted from About Manchester United

English Premiership Football Roundup, Week 12

Christopher Rose — Mon, 7 Nov 2005 20:03:22 EST

Bonfire Weekend in England didn't disappoint with a sensational victory by Manchester United over leaders Chelsea; Blackburn's demolition of the previously unbeaten away Charlton and Bolton edging Spurs.The fireworks started at Saturday lunchtime as Liverpool thumped two late rockets through the soggy Aston Villa defence and continued with Thierry Henry leading by example as always, scoring two of Arsenal's three against the already seemingly doomed Sunderland; Blackburn Rovers continued their recent habit of turning over "better" teams with a 4-1 destruction of Charlton Athletic, and Fulham surprisingly eclipsed the sky blue of Manchester City.Routine and unremarkable results in the last three of the day as the Uniteds of Newcastle and West Ham banked three points against Midlands duo Birmingham City and West Bromwich Albion respectively. In the late game, Wigan Athletic continued their remarkable run to second place in the table with an easy 2-0 victory at strugglers Portsmouth.Sunday's matches sparkled into life with the return to form of Everton being just too much for the disappointing Middlesbrough for their first home victory of the season before, in the weekend's star fixture, Manchester United finally stop Chelsea with a rare Darren Fletcher goal.The fiery weekend is brought to a close with the Monday night thriller between Bolton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur, with the Northerners nicking it 1-0 thanks to another great goal from captain Kevin Nolan, his fifth in six games, to go above neighbours Manchester United into third place in the Premiership table.This roundup is cross-posted here on About Manchester United.Ed: RJ

English Premiership Football Roundup, Week 11

Christopher Rose — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 17:27:43 EST

This week's Premiership fixtures kicked off with Wigan Athletic proving just too strong for the improving Fulham but only just, leaving it until the 90th minute to edge it 1-0. The weekend's big fixture saw the strutting Tottenham Hotspur just fail to beat bitter rivals Arsenal, ending 1-all after Spurs had dominated the match but failed to finish off the opposition.The three o'clock games saw Chelsea extend their control of the Premiership, running out easy 4-2 victors over an initially hard to break down Blackburn Rovers, thanks to great performances by lethal striker Didier Drogba and the best player in Britain today, Frank Lampard in midfield.Elsewhere, Bolton Wanderers proved just too strong for hosts Charlton Athletic, stealing a vital 0-1 away win thanks to another crucial goal from captain Kevin Nolan and going above the East Londoners in the table, whilst Liverpool returned to winning ways with a steadying 2-0 victory over the original East Enders West Ham United.The two basement battles were decisive, the previously rooted to the bottom Everton leapfrogging over the increasingly vulnerable Steve Bruce's Birmingham City to 18th place, their second away victory coming due to the first of the day's crucial goalkeeping errors. Over on the East Coast, sad strugglers Sunderland confirmed the mammoth task facing them as they are already looking like relegation fodder, going down 1-4 to fellow minnows Portsmouth.The same score at Middlesborough sounds unremarkable until one realises that it's 4-1 to the home team over a truly dire Manchester United, who were inept in defence and clueless in front of goal. Apparently billionaire American owner Malcolm Glazer is prepared to give Sir Alex Ferguson a blank cheque to make the team competitive with rouble-rich Chelski, news which can't come soon enough for the bewildered fans.Sunday saw the heretofore underperforming Newcastle United return to winning ways, slamming West Bromwich Albion 0-3, thanks to a brace from the now fit Michael Owen and a late goal from supersub Alan Shearer, a result which takes the Geordies back into the top half of the table but leaves the generally impressive Brummies right on the edge of the drop zone.Week 11 draws to a close with the Monday night victory of Manchester City over up for sale Aston Villa 3-1 with former Villa striker Darius Vassell scoring twice as the Sky Blues soar to fourth place.The current English Premiership Football league table is here.This article is cross-posted here on About Manchester United.

English Premiership Football Roundup Week 10

Christopher Rose — Sun, 23 Oct 2005 14:06:37 EDT

This week's Premiership fixtures kicked off with the Saturday lunchtime game between Mark Hughes' Blackburn Rovers and Steve Bruce's Birmingham City; the striker's team beat the defender's side and Birmingham went home empty-handed after losing 2-0.In the main group of Saturday afternoon matches, the standout game was a bit of a letdown for both sets of fans as Manchester United were held to a draw by Tottenham Hotspur, which can only have pleased Chelsea fans. Elsewhere Arsenal bested the continuingly impressive Manchester City thanks to a Robert Pires penalty but the former kings of the capital ended the day as they started, only the fourth best team in London.Perennial strugglers Aston Villa were unable to raise their game for the visit of this season's surprise package Wigan Athletic, who surge to an unprecedented fourth place in their first ever Premiership season, whilst Fulham played above themselves to beat the moody men of Merseyside that are Liverpool.The late afternoon match saw strugglers Portsmouth entertain high flyers Charlton Athletic down on the South Coast of England - and down is where they stayed as the Londoners came from behind to leap into second place.The four Sunday matches started with a cracking North East derby as Newcastle United hosted an increasingly desperate Sunderland. The final 15 minutes of the first half produced a flurry of four goals but Newcastle nicked the victory thanks to a stunning second half Belozoglu Emre free kick, his first goal for the club since joining them from Inter Milan.Later, Bolton Wanderers continued their good season with a routine 2-0 victory against promoted West Bromwich Albion, which takes them to 7th, whilst West Ham United bounced back from last week's defeat, beating Middlesborough 2-1.This week's fixtures were brought to a thrilling close with this season's surprise whipping boys Everton, currently propping up the table, hosting runaway leaders Chelsea. All non-Chelsea fans will join in congratulating The Toffees as the first team this season to avoid defeat against the reigning champions. The Merseysiders held on for the draw after going ahead through a first half James Beattie penalty and it took another stunning Frank Lampard goal in the second half to bring Chelski back into it. He truly is the best footballer in the Premiership right now.The current Premiership League table is here.This article originally posted here to About Manchester United.

English Premiership Football Roundup, Week 9

Christopher Rose — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 19:38:44 EDT

This week's round of fixtures in the most exciting Premiership season for years produced some surprising results, starting with the early Saturday victory by new boys Wigan, now up to 6th thanks to another Jason Roberts goal, over a still stuttering Newcastle United who drop to 13th and must be feeling their season is already one of recovery - and we're only at the quarter season mark.In the main group of Saturday afternoon matches, Premiership leaders Chelsea thrashed the previously highflying Bolton 5-1, but only after being a goal behind at half time. Manchester United advance to third after a relatively straightforward victory over a spirited Sunderland side that are better than their current position implies.Liverpool had the best of the Northwest derby against Blackburn but both teams remain wedged in midtable. Portsmouth were as pleased as Middlesborough disappointed after their routine draw; the impressive Spurs deepened Everton's mystifyingly poor start and climbed to second place; and West Brom, whose only dream is avoiding relegation, continued playing out of their skins for manager Bryan Robson and beat an out-of-sorts and injury stricken Arsenal.The Sunday lunchtime Midlands derby made history as Aston Villa earned their first ever Premiership victory over neighbours Birmingham whilst the later game saw much-improved-under-manager-Stuart-Pearce Manchester City just best the always positive West Ham United thanks to two goals by the much-travelled Andy Cole on his 34th birthday.This week's round of fixtures was completed with a Monday night London derby as Charlton fell to fifth place after having to come from behind to earn a draw with Fulham.All in all, another good week for reigning champions Chelsea, who lead the table by nine points after nine consecutive victories; the two Manchester teams, United and City, who are third and fourth respectively; Tottenham, who make it a London 1-2 at the top of table; and Wigan, who were playing non-League football only twenty-seven years ago and now are up to sixth in the Premiership. Week 9 ResultsSaturday 15th October 2005>Chelsea 5 Bolton Wanderers 1 Liverpool 1 Blackburn Rovers 0 Middlesbrough 1 Portsmouth 1 Sunderland 1 Manchester United 3 Tottenham Hotspur 2 Everton 0 West Bromwich Albion 2 Arsenal 1 Wigan Athletic 1 Newcastle United 0Sunday 16th October 2005Birmingham 0 Aston Villa 1 Manchester City 2 West Ham United 1Monday 17th October 2005Charlton Athletic 1 Fulham 1The current Premier League table can be seen here.This roundup originally published here on About Manchester United.